US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 2026.
The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.
To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.
Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.
FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 2026.
After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.
Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.
Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.
His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues.
Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.
The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.
Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.
Police detain an activist outside the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist,” in Moscow, June 6, 2026.
Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.
FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 6, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 6, 2026.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.
Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.
FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 6, 2026.
Pwife1036 素人エロ動画まゆ ガチでエロい. Miss av中国 激しいのが好みの方とはうーんです!. Day ago cawd939 avを無料でオンライン視聴、笹倉彩、社員の俺らは優秀なキレ可愛いolが社長から気に入られていてもの凄くムカついたので出張先の相部屋で20発中出し孕ませて輪 して発散しました。 笹倉彩 missav. Miss av中国 激しいのが好みの方とはうーんです!.
Day ago cawd936 avを無料でオンライン視聴、香川アンズ、150cm小柄可愛いなのに脱いだらギャップすごいクリスタル透明おっぱいボディ!kawaii史上最も美白でミニマム巨乳ボディなt kt kインフルエンサー大バズり新人デビュー 香川あんず missav.. Miss a v女優 体型普通だけどくびれしっかりでバックしてみ..清らかで控えめな気品を感じる立ち居振る舞い、そして細部にまで行き届いた身のこなし。 まっさらな存在であるがゆえの初々しさと、どこかぎこちない. Run › zhtw › videosjufd885 可愛い顔してエグい腰付き! ハーフ美少女のデカ尻絶頂騎乗, Miss av中国 激しいのが好みの方とはうーんです!. 国内で最も可愛く最も全体スタイルが良いビル清掃員がavデビュー! ? クビレ54cm美巨乳 小泉楓さん 20 アダルト出演 小泉楓 ここ最近100人以上観客集まった注目シンガーが、歌手有名になる前に変態プレイを体験したくてこっそりav出演デビュー!. Days ago 10musume012726_01 avを無料でオンライン視聴、マドレーヌ、あの簡単にやらせてくれるインバウンド観光フィンランドの可愛い女の子 missav.
Jufd885 可愛い顔してエグい腰付き! ハーフ美少女のデカ尻絶頂騎乗位 浜崎まりあ, 免費高清av在線觀看,無需下載看到飽。, Miss av中国 激しいのが好みの方とはうーんです!. Jp › works › list美少女該当作品 美少女だけのavメーカーkawaii公式サイト.
Miss av ランキング 恋 知らんけど。, Day ago cawd939 avを無料でオンライン視聴、笹倉彩、社員の俺らは優秀なキレ可愛いolが社長から気に入られていてもの凄くムカついたので出張先の相部屋で20発中出し孕ませて輪 して発散しました。 笹倉彩 missav, 可愛い a v女優 素直で純真なミナモさん、満足してもらいたいと時間いっぱいご奉仕してくれるので満足度も高く、二人きりの空間で甘いひと時を. mida251 新・新人 これがあたらしい’可愛い’。 八坂凪 avデビュー 国民的アイドルグループのセンターだったかもしれない美少女ー。 最高の日本avサイト、永遠に無料、高速、ラグなし、10万本以上の動画、毎日更新、再生中に広告なし。.
Snos100 無検閲リーク avを無料でオンライン視聴、榊原萌、本当にギリギリのガンギマリ大乱交 純白可愛い美少女を本物媚薬に漬けて発情オス20人が朝から夜まで12時間ず〜っとハメてノンストップでイカせ続けた! 榊原萌 missav. かわいい素人専門チャンネル 無料エロ動画(av), Day ago cawd939 avを無料でオンライン視聴、笹倉彩、社員の俺らは優秀なキレ可愛いolが社長から気に入られていてもの凄くムカついたので出張先の相部屋で20発中出し孕ませて輪 して発散しました。 笹倉彩 missav. Miss av ai 顔はすぐに赤らめて可愛い。, Jufd885 可愛い顔してエグい腰付き! ハーフ美少女のデカ尻絶頂騎乗位 浜崎まりあ, 免費高清av在線觀看,無需下載看到飽。.
| Snos098 無検閲リーク avを無料でオンライン視聴、新木希空、1ヶ月ガチ禁欲した本物可愛い美少女が性欲大解放イキ壊れる、超絶頂キメセクエロティズム 新木希空 missav. | Snos098 無検閲リーク avを無料でオンライン視聴、新木希空、1ヶ月ガチ禁欲した本物可愛い美少女が性欲大解放イキ壊れる、超絶頂キメセクエロティズム 新木希空 missav. | Fans › tags › 可愛い可愛い av 在線看 missav 免費高清av在線看. |
| Av主観 いろかちゃんかわいいです! ベッドでもdkから全身リップからフェラ、69も60分なので駆け足で流れていく感じです。 お客様の性感を除々に高めていき 身長ちっちゃい. | Run › zhtw › videosjufd885 可愛い顔してエグい腰付き! ハーフ美少女のデカ尻絶頂騎乗. | Pwife1036 素人エロ動画まゆ ガチでエロい. |
| Miss av 淫乱 みねちゃんはお仕事が未経験らしく緊張している様子が可愛らしい、年齢感はハタチくらいの若さでした この国の子というよりは、タイ風な可愛らしい子って. |
Miss av 淫乱 みねちゃんはお仕事が未経験らしく緊張している様子が可愛らしい、年齢感はハタチくらいの若さでした この国の子というよりは、タイ風な可愛らしい子って. ゆえに、かわいいav女優を求めて迷った男性、かわいいav女優を探している男性なら、確実にお役立ていただけます! ぜひ当記事で紹介している20選を参考にして、かわいい女性が多いav業界でも、とくにかわいいav女優を見つけてみてください!. 国内で最も可愛く最も全体スタイルが良いビル清掃員がavデビュー! ? クビレ54cm美巨乳 小泉楓さん 20 アダルト出演 小泉楓 ここ最近100人以上観客集まった注目シンガーが、歌手有名になる前に変態プレイを体験したくてこっそりav出演デビュー!, 待つこと20分。 miss えろ 「弱い! 甘えるのも甘えられるのも大好きです。 特に耳たぶは超感じまくり。 顔は可愛らしいし性格もいいです。 miss えろ 時間的なこともあった.
今回はその中でも、思わず推したくなる女の子だけを厳選。 最高の推しを見つけたい人も、ただ癒されたい人も、このランキングで間違いなしです! おすすめav女優一覧はこちらをクリック!. mida251 新・新人 これがあたらしい’可愛い’。 八坂凪 avデビュー 国民的アイドルグループのセンターだったかもしれない美少女ー。 最高の日本avサイト、永遠に無料、高速、ラグなし、10万本以上の動画、毎日更新、再生中に広告なし。, 清らかで控えめな気品を感じる立ち居振る舞い、そして細部にまで行き届いた身のこなし。 まっさらな存在であるがゆえの初々しさと、どこかぎこちない.
Av主観 いろかちゃんかわいいです! ベッドでもdkから全身リップからフェラ、69も60分なので駆け足で流れていく感じです。 お客様の性感を除々に高めていき 身長ちっちゃい, かわいい素人専門チャンネル 無料エロ動画(av). Miss a v女優 体型普通だけどくびれしっかりでバックしてみ.
Pwife1036 素人エロ動画まゆ ガチでエロい. Jp › works › list美少女該当作品 美少女だけのavメーカーkawaii公式サイト. Miss av 淫乱 お顔はパネルのまんまでかわいいですね〜!, Snos100 無検閲リーク avを無料でオンライン視聴、榊原萌、本当にギリギリのガンギマリ大乱交 純白可愛い美少女を本物媚薬に漬けて発情オス20人が朝から夜まで12時間ず〜っとハメてノンストップでイカせ続けた! 榊原萌 missav, 美人顔で、甘える様な可愛らしい愛顔を、ずっと見せてくるから、可愛すぎて、本当に照れまくってましたよ! とてもいい娘でした ギャルのひょっこフェラとかエロすぎ.
japan cute av Miss av ランキング 恋 知らんけど。. 待つこと20分。 miss えろ 「弱い! 甘えるのも甘えられるのも大好きです。 特に耳たぶは超感じまくり。 顔は可愛らしいし性格もいいです。 miss えろ 時間的なこともあった. Day ago cawd936 avを無料でオンライン視聴、香川アンズ、150cm小柄可愛いなのに脱いだらギャップすごいクリスタル透明おっぱいボディ!kawaii史上最も美白でミニマム巨乳ボディなt kt kインフルエンサー大バズり新人デビュー 香川あんず missav. Miss av中国 激しいのが好みの方とはうーんです!. Miss av 淫乱 みねちゃんはお仕事が未経験らしく緊張している様子が可愛らしい、年齢感はハタチくらいの若さでした この国の子というよりは、タイ風な可愛らしい子って. javrank 엄지수
inhye0416 kbj Days ago 10musume012726_01 avを無料でオンライン視聴、マドレーヌ、あの簡単にやらせてくれるインバウンド観光フィンランドの可愛い女の子 missav. Snos098 無検閲リーク avを無料でオンライン視聴、新木希空、1ヶ月ガチ禁欲した本物可愛い美少女が性欲大解放イキ壊れる、超絶頂キメセクエロティズム 新木希空 missav. Miss av ランキング 恋 知らんけど。. Miss av ランキング 恋 知らんけど。. Day ago cawd939 avを無料でオンライン視聴、笹倉彩、社員の俺らは優秀なキレ可愛いolが社長から気に入られていてもの凄くムカついたので出張先の相部屋で20発中出し孕ませて輪 して発散しました。 笹倉彩 missav. ippa 050003
iwaraqos ゆえに、かわいいav女優を求めて迷った男性、かわいいav女優を探している男性なら、確実にお役立ていただけます! ぜひ当記事で紹介している20選を参考にして、かわいい女性が多いav業界でも、とくにかわいいav女優を見つけてみてください!. Run › zhtw › videosjufd885 可愛い顔してエグい腰付き! ハーフ美少女のデカ尻絶頂騎乗. Day ago cawd939 avを無料でオンライン視聴、笹倉彩、社員の俺らは優秀なキレ可愛いolが社長から気に入られていてもの凄くムカついたので出張先の相部屋で20発中出し孕ませて輪 して発散しました。 笹倉彩 missav. Miss av ai 顔はすぐに赤らめて可愛い。. Jufd885 可愛い顔してエグい腰付き! ハーフ美少女のデカ尻絶頂騎乗位 浜崎まりあ, 免費高清av在線觀看,無需下載看到飽。. jav gif fc2
javrank 인기 mida251 新・新人 これがあたらしい’可愛い’。 八坂凪 avデビュー 国民的アイドルグループのセンターだったかもしれない美少女ー。 最高の日本avサイト、永遠に無料、高速、ラグなし、10万本以上の動画、毎日更新、再生中に広告なし。. Day ago cawd939 avを無料でオンライン視聴、笹倉彩、社員の俺らは優秀なキレ可愛いolが社長から気に入られていてもの凄くムカついたので出張先の相部屋で20発中出し孕ませて輪 して発散しました。 笹倉彩 missav. Jp › works › list美少女該当作品 美少女だけのavメーカーkawaii公式サイト. Jp › works › list美少女該当作品 美少女だけのavメーカーkawaii公式サイト. Pwife1036 素人エロ動画まゆ ガチでエロい.
javrank 노브라 Miss a v女優 体型普通だけどくびれしっかりでバックしてみ. Day ago cawd939 avを無料でオンライン視聴、笹倉彩、社員の俺らは優秀なキレ可愛いolが社長から気に入られていてもの凄くムカついたので出張先の相部屋で20発中出し孕ませて輪 して発散しました。 笹倉彩 missav. 今回はその中でも、思わず推したくなる女の子だけを厳選。 最高の推しを見つけたい人も、ただ癒されたい人も、このランキングで間違いなしです! おすすめav女優一覧はこちらをクリック!. 清らかで控えめな気品を感じる立ち居振る舞い、そして細部にまで行き届いた身のこなし。 まっさらな存在であるがゆえの初々しさと、どこかぎこちない. Fans › tags › 可愛い可愛い av 在線看 missav 免費高清av在線看.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 2026.
This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth.
This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.
Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.
Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.
The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”
Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.
Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.
People gather facing law enforcement after marching through downtown Austin, Texas at the conclusion of the "No Kings Day" demonstration in the US, June 6, 2026.
Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.
In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.
People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, June 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 2026.
In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.
Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.
Miss av中国 激しいのが好みの方とはうーんです!., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.